The video attached to this story originally aired on Sept. 5, 2025.
AUSTIN (KXAN) — The August Jobs Report from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics showed a weakening economy and a tough landscape for job seekers.
The U.S. economy added just 22,000 jobs for the month, the bureau revised earlier numbers for the year down by 911,000. Both of those numbers are red flags, said Texas-based hiring expert David Cathey.
Cathey works as a partner at Unity Search, where he helps recruit new talent to major companies in Austin, Dallas and Houston. He spoke with KXAN about what those the economy and how job seekers can stand out from the crowd.
This interview has been lightly edited for clarity and brevity.
KXAN Reporter Tom Miller: When you look over the August jobs numbers, what is it that stands out to you?
Cathey: If I could summarize the thing that stood out to me the most, and it’s been consistent throughout 2025, it’s one word, and that’s revisions. The revisions have all gone in the negative direction. What stood out to me specifically for August is the expectation that there were going to be 75,000 jobs created, and it came out to be 22,000. That’s a net difference of 53,000 in the wrong direction. That is a significant number.
Miller: For people looking to enter the workforce, what is the impact this is having?
Cathey: It’s created significant challenges, particularly in the business community. People who are graduating with a degree in business have found it harder to get a job. There’s so much uncertainty. When you really break that down from a demographic viewpoint, it’s been impacting men more than women. The reason is that there are still more men graduating with a business degree than there are females. On the other side of that same coin is the healthcare market has looked really good. It’s still growing. It’s one of two sectors, healthcare and leisure hospitality, that is growing, and there are still more women who are graduating with a healthcare degree.
Miller: For people trying to stand out and get a job, what is your advice to these potential candidates?
Cathey: You’ve got to stay positive, and that’s really, really hard to do. Tactically, you’ve got to network. One of the things for networking is that people think, ‘if I’m in finance, I’ve got to network with people in finance.’ That might not be the case.
Networking also means perhaps you worked with a marketing department or a product department or a sales department, reach out to former coworkers. Reach out to neighbors, make it known, and be consistently reaching out. Everybody is struggling, and people want to help other people, and you just don’t know who that person is that’s waiting out there to help you.
Miller: Employers are seeing these same numbers, and they’re realizing it is a tight job market. Are you seeing companies take advantage of this and get picky about who they are willing to hire?
Cathey: The employment market’s always cyclical. It has turned into an employer’s market where they’re getting more specific about what they’re looking for. If they’ve identified ten things they want, they’re not going to settle on someone who has seven out of ten. The negative side of that is they can miss that diamond in the rough and that person who can offer so much more value, who can launch their organization into another level.
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